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Lost as he was in the delerium of blood poisoning and a minor concussion, Crousader was no longer dwelling in the present. His mind had taken a sharp turn to the past, back across a great expanse of shimmering blue and into a realm of clouds and men.

He was young again, unbound and free, challenging older stallions and winning, forming a great herd of his own.


A shrill whinny escaped his parched throat in the present, startling the woman and the painted stallion. Both looked at him in alarm, but as of yet he hadn't tried to escape.




The clouds, and the misty realm they guarded high in the mountains, how he loved them. The men here were gentle and orange-clad, often they would come to him seeking guidance, or merely his presence. Of their words, he knew nothing, but their minds were clear and far-seeing, and it was their minds he also loved. So he protected them as he protected his new herd, nurturing them through their trials, saving them if they fell. He was the cloudsteed of Xiang-Lun, guardian of the Xiang monks.

For many seasons his stewardship went without incident, until the day the iron-men came, and all went up in fire.

They came without mercy, killing the monks as they prayed for their attacker's souls. Crousader tried to fight them, but he was alone after sending his herd high into the mountain chain for safety. Arrows dug furrows into his hide, lances pierced his shoulder and flanks, then finally chains wrapped themselves around his neck and legs, dragging him to the ground. Of Xiang-lun, the last he saw was the great temple collasping onto itself, taking all of the great sage's teachings with it.



Another whinny escaped the white stallion, but this time it was weak, laced with his true pain and the pain he was remembering. Celei was hurriedly crushing herbs, mixing them and measuring. Glancing up, she approximated his weight and paled when she finally noticed how thin he was beneath the wings and heavy armor. A thought came to her then, and she put down her mixing bowl, and placed chilled fingers against the stallion's helm, thinking only to take it off.

The icy feeling settling about his face was what he woke up too, along with a matching cold heaviness that had settling around his breast, legs and haunches. His surroundings were also foreign, and his wounds were nearly healed, bespeaking how long he had been unconscious.

Suddenly he felt cold hands grasp his face, forcing a sharp barbed bar into his scarred mouth. Suddenly he was fully away and he fought the hands, lurching to his feet he tried to rear and spread his wings. But more chains held him in place, and in the distance he heard laughing. Opening his blue eyes he searched the darkened cell, finally latching onto the figure of three men and a woman. The woman was the one laughing, and in his present state, he fixated on her. She was clad in flowing white, and carried a white whip that hung loosely at her side. Green laurels crowned her luxuriously curled auburn locks, but it was her eyes that he hated, They were a steely blue, the kind that held no compassion and only relfected the light of other's souls, since they held none of their own.

Instantly he hated her, and he lashed out at her with sharp hooves.


Celei cried out when she was flung back, landing hard on her side she tried to roll out of harms way, but the flurry of hooves prevented her from moving.

The painted stallion had also been caught blindsided, and he was only now coming to his feet after being struck in the barrel.

As for the white stallion, he reared high above the native woman, his eyes distant and unseeing before he came back to earth, forefeet placed to either side of the native's skull.

Flame had started to reply to Yei, but he wasn't quite sure of his words. Something about the painted stallion kept his tongue in check, and he only wished that the feeling would go away and he could spirit Celei, Yei, and Tai away from this forsaken mountain.

Tai, however, frowned lightly at his sister, and nudged her should reassuringly. "No harm meant Yei, we were just curious. And I'm sure he'll be-"

"CELEI" The cry completed his sentence as he saw the injured one fly to his feet and kick aside the woman and the other soquili. For a brief moment he saw his whole world come crashing down when his 'mother' didn't move from where she had fallen, his eyes narrowed and he bugled angrily.

Celei was trembling where she lay, but she had had the common sense to stay as still as possible, and not utter a sound. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Tai and Yei, and for a moment fear for the colt she had raised replaced fear for her own well being... If you hurt Tai, spirits help me you will regret it! I don't care how injured you are!

Perhaps Crousader heard her thoughts, or some semblance of his normal self cut through his delerium when the red mare approached him. Her anger was a red-hot rage swirling around him, engulfing him... reminding him of his own. But he stepepd aside from the prone human, and reared up again, lashing out at the mare.

"Games! Games they called them! Tests of strength and wile! But it was YOU, your kind! Both of you!" he screamed the accusations as he came back down to earth, unaware of the shooting pain or the blood welling up fresh and unchecked down his foreleg. "They chained me! Chained others like me! We were toys of pleasure, set against each other and terrorized animals. For WHAT! But then.. yes then they had a better idea... why not make more of us... so they brought YOU!"

His tone had reached a fever pitch, but his anger was now directed solely at Yei. He had forgotten the human in favor of the bigger, more tangible threat. A mare, the epitome of the injustices wrecked on him and his kind, that he saw Yei for who she was stacked up in her favor, but the measure of pride that had always kept his rage in check was lost.

"Mares, so many of them, they brought them to the Great Ring and thought to force the situation. But the humans, they are so stupid. The mares knew better, and at first I thought they would help free us! But no, they wanted power, and the mindles affection of the two-leggers they would recieve if they birthed a winged colt. They beguiled us, and in the end betrayed everything!" That he was growing weaker by the moment did not register, but he could feel the blood fever burning, and mistook it for greater rage.

Frozen mid speech, the winged stallion came back down to the ground with all fours almost respectfully, though his wings were still mantled and heaving in desperation. "No ring... no chains... no ring..." his voice echoed her's hollowly, and he sagged in place, fighting to keep his balance as his body grew ever weaker. Half awake he could feel tears springing free at the corners of his eyes, only to freeze moments after their birth.

"I'm not a hypocrit, I'm not... a hypocrit..." he murmured, far from the ragging lunatic of a scant breath before. "But the mountains have always been.. safe..." he said, more to himself when she had finished her lecture with a huff. The hot air swirled through the cold, and in his feverish state, he could feel the warm breath tingle the delicate hairs of his muzzle, pushing him down down down. Until at last, he sank completely to the ground at her feet.

Flame jumped into action immediately and trotted over to Celei's side, urging to her towards the stallion with his nose. At first the native woman fought away his attentions, all she wanted was to get her 'family' away from the dangerous wind, but Flame's persistent nose would have none of that, and he directed her towards the white soquili again. Reluctantly she gave in, and bent to gather her scattered supplies while Flame joined Yei.

Blais, however, had remained where he was. His amber eyes were burning brighter and brighter by the second, following Flame's every movement. Inwardly his mind was in turmoil, by the mare's own mouth she had named this creature Flame, but the orange stallion was far from the evil creature he had been envisioning. Taller, he thought, with dead and evil eyes that held no regard for his family, let alone a stranger. But here, here this Flame held a deep compassion in his glowing eyes. This Flame loved the world and everything in it, and he held a burden that he hoped to keep from that same world. Eventually his anger and fustration demanded release, no matter the drastic turn his thoughts had taken.

Bugling a war cry, Blais reared up his hind legs, his amber eyes now a fierce gold in the winter light. "FLAME!" Coming back to earth he reared up again, "You have much to atone for! FATHER!"


Of the assembled, perhaps it was only Tai who understood the sacrifice Yei had made. So he made his way towards her, and nuzzled her neck affectionately. "Thank you Yei." he started, interrupted when the painted stranger yelled his mentor's name.

Curling his lips back in a sneer, Blais spared the mare only a glance. She deserved that much... but she had better not stand against him.

"I have nothing against the two-legger or your broken wind. My business is with this miserable creature" he snarled, pawing the snow packed ground angrily, amber eyes locked on the fiery stallion.

Tai was silent for once, his usually mobile face set and bordering on angry. Twice now, he had been asked to step down and let others do the protecting. His pride, as flexible as it was, couldn't take much more of this.

Determined, he postioned himself between Flame and the angry painted stallion, mahogany eyes glinting angrily.

As for Flame, he was stunned. Father? Since when? Oddly though, he was not worried about his personal safety, he knew he could protect himself, but the others... and Tai, what was he doing?

"Tai, stand down!"

Flicking back an ear, he pondered the request, weighed the command behind it, and came to the realization that Flame would only end up angry with him. And he could trust Flame, couldn't he? His mentor wouldn't be killed by some upstart on a cold mountainside.

Flame could sense Tai's unease, so he moved quietly to stand beside him, neither pushing nor pulling. He could respect Tai's feelings on this, but one look at the angry eyes of his.. son... and the stallion of fire knew this was his fight.

Had to be really.

"Miserable.. I have not known that word for quite some time." he mused, redirecting the painted colt's gaze back to himself.

"But come, before this goes too far; may I know your name?"

----*****----
.skipping forward.
----*****----

His first meeting on foreign soils had not been as pleasant as he would have liked. He hadn't expected to be immediately embraced by the populace but he was completely unprepared for the scrutinising gaze and the viper tongue. Or rather, perhaps, if he was honest...He hadn't been expecting to see someone who was meant to be dead. Yes, quite literally, dead.

Like she had been for the last five or so years.

The wind soquili shook his head at this, casting a glance upwards as his whisker-like feathers tickled at his brows and caused a slight itch. It wasn't that he wasn't happy to see her, on the contrary he had been positively delighted the moment he had recognised the way she held her head - but those eyes. Before he had even opened his mouth, her eyes had scanned over him in a critical and almost disgusted manner...it had been enough to silence him.

If that hadn't been enough to silence him though, the 'Who are you?' spoken in such arrogant tones was. In those three words she had indicated that she had either completely forgotten he existed, or she simply refused to believe he was here, in the Kawani lands.

"Yei." He released another small sigh as he padded uncertainly along the forest's trail. He wasn't entirely sure what had possessed him, but whatever it may have been, it had sent him on his way with her scent as his soul guide. He hadn't really considered how he was going to return to the mountains safely, but he would take that into account later.

Nevertheless, allowing his gaze to flick ahead of him. He assessed the obstacles that lay before him and ducked beneath a low lying branch. It had been reasonably quiet so far, but he found his curious wanderings to be somewhat hindered when he encountered something he hadn't seen in years.

Was that a teepee?!

"Even Edel went with them..."

His ears and eyes swivelled round as he caught the somewhat irritated voice. It drifted through the still air like a the gentle caress of a summer breeze and yet, for a start... It wasn't winter and nor did the stallion consider complaining to be gentle - it gave him quite a headache actually!

Nevertheless he did release a soft snort and lifted his head somewhat higher to gaze out across the encampment. When he had approached he hadn't seen nor heard of a thing, so why now, did the complainer take the time to become more vocal?

The creatures of this land were so very strange.

"Peculiar." He mused softly, an odd and foreign lilt to his voice as he swung his gaze to another location. He was about to give up when he caught a rather fluffy tail and was vaguely reminded of a certain baby bear that he had misplaced...well know, he hadn't misplaced him, Yei had 'borrowed' him and never given him back.

Bloody mare. She felt she could steal his companion and forget who he was.

He furrowed his brow mildly at his own thoughts and promptly shook his head, for now he was more interested in this bear...He wasn't used to seeing them stomp about in a manner which indicated they clearly owned the place.

"Greetings." He murmured, having cleared his throat previously.

Grencia was not about to admit that he hadn't the slightest idea what a chicken was. As much as he was prepared to show himself as foolish in front of those he trusted implicitly (like his mother), he was not about to reveal such things to a bear. He wasn't entirely sure though, his immediate assumption was that he should take the words as a suitable insult - Chicken sounded somewhat offensive.

"Greetings, Sir Ursine." The stallion responded after a few moments. His tone was level, unassuming and could not be taken to be scathing in the slightest but his brow did furrow as the bear gawked - one did grow weary when it happened every time.

"Praytell, do I have something on my face?"